These are the worst scientist / explorers ever. Given the unprecedented opportunity to explore an alien world, they constantly bitch about how much they want to go home. Their reaction to indigenous species is to scream and shoot. They destroy the only photo they managed to get of King Dinosaur. AND they nuke an island for no apparent reason.

The actor who plays the character (appropriately) named 'Dick' really is one. The way he manhandles the women- he shoves Pat off the wounded Ralph (0:54:30), shoves her again (0:55:00), he has two guns but just watches (1:01:50) as a giant snake crawls up to and all over Ralph, he keeps picking Joey up by his tail, slams Nora's head into a rock (1:10:30) then later smashes her into the cave wall (1:22:00). He drags Pat out of the boat (1:30:30) and over a rock mound. What a tool!

Also: this ep added the final piece of the MST magical formula, the educational film/psa. I never enjoyed the serials, but the filmstrip stuff was comedy gold and would provide many of my fondest memories of the show.

"X Marks the Spot" is no "Date with Your Family" or "Hired," but it is a delightful first taste of badinage bisque. Bon appetit!

Two observations, one good, one bad, then RAM chips...well, one: I need to watch my figure.

Good thing: Crow's Brody impression is so perfectly executed. It cracks up Joel, too.

Bad thing: was a whiny character a fetish for Lippert? It seems like all his movies have a whiny person in them. "Jungle Goddess" and "Radar Secret Service" and "WIld Horses."

That's a nice script there, Orville, but I'm not feeling the funny. Make the mechanic a whiny neurotic--yeah, with a thing for hydraulic joists...oh yeah, who has chronic heartburn, and complains about it every time the plot gets too heavy, oh yeah, oh--excuse me, Orville, I'll be in my trailer.

You know, now that I think of it, there's an interesting context to that kind of deus ex machina. I mean, in the 50s, what would have been the biggest global event in people's minds? WWII...which was ended by dropping two atomic bombs. It must have become some kind of perfect solution to the problem. Instead of God, it was an atomic bomb that solved everything. Of course, in reality, it's ridiculous, but there may be something to it, particularly when most people wouldn't have known anything about nuclear fallout or anything like that. All they would know is that a bomb led to Japan's surrender.

Of course, I may be reading too much into this. I have a tendency to do that.

Why the hell did they actually NEED to set off the nuclear weapon? They were able to escape the island. The weapon was nothing but a waist of stock footage. Must have been a "white male reality" reaction.
Next question: Who was the idiot who decided that 4 was the right number of "astronauts"? Couldn't they have sent 8? 4 scientists to figure out the structure of the planet and 4 guards to keep them safe. Or 5 scientists, including 2 doctors in case one gets injured, and 3 guards. Hell, they could have sent 20 to start a colony.

I've started looking at the acting credits of some of the characters in the movies they watch. The male scientists were extremely active, playing numerous guest starring and recurring roles in TV shows for years after this movie. So this movie didn't destroy their future careers. :D

I think Bert's films are more watchable than most. I like creature features and occasionally there is funny parts like in this movie when the guy asked "did you see anything strange" then they cut to the giant dead wasp.

Over the course of the MST3K series we've seen some truly inept and unethical scientists and astronauts. But these people...these four really have to be the worst of the bunch, taking the Ross Allen method of slash and burn to other planets.

I love how detonating a nuclear weapon on a young planet is considered an acceptable "Plan B". "Oh hey, this planet is in a stage equivalent to prehistoric Earth! Let's inundate it with absurd amounts of lethal radiation!"

Why even bother to have "lady scientists" in your film if all they do is scream, whine about marriage and generally serve as dead weight. Hell, the not-so-happy housewives of It Conquered The World had more gumption than this. And Queen Laura from The Outlaw was more sympathetic.

Ever notice Joel flubs a lot & they just keep it rollin'? Around 1:08 he asks if the Vultures "r Normal sized or Real size? They don't tell us that...". And earlier during the Joey the Lemur sketch he says "elder-me" instead of elderly. I love that they, like many of the movies they watch flub & keep on goin'. 2nd up is the occasional mistake from Trace's Crow, doesn't seem 2 happen much 2 him a lot. Not sure if I've ever heard Tom flub.

Bert I. Gordon directed 8 films that became MST3K episodes, more than any one director...and never has Bert I given less of a f*ck than here, in King Dinosaur. It's a masterpiece of cinematic apathy second only to Attack of the Eye Creatures.

Okaay, so the title "King Dinosaur" is just a tad misleading. A bunch of lizards tearing into each other, a giant bee, some birds and a "lemur" do not a royal dinosaur make. Why not just call it, "Random Animal Stock Footage"? Or "We Filmed a Zoo"? Also, I feel bad for all the other critters just minding their own business on that island, like the giant armadillo and elephants... You know what, never mind.

I love how all the launch footage is stock footage of test launches of captured V-2s at White Sands. Still, a much classier use of old stock footage of rockets than "Creeping Terror", which showed us stock footage of an Atlas ICBM launch run in reverse and expected us to believe it was an alien spacecraft landing (uh huh, yeah, right).

I love how, when they're fleeing the area before the nuke goes off, the women are shrieking and squealing hysterically, the guys are shoving them down the hill towards the raft, and the music score is mocking them: "Nyahhhh nyah-nyah nyahhhh nyah-nyah nyaahhh nyaahhhhhh...!" Still, I think Joel and the Bots missed a bet by not breaking out into the "Hawaii Five-O" theme when the "explorers" dived into the rafts and started paddling like hell across the lake.